Mayan Madness: To Lamanai!

After lunch, we began our tour in the museum. Oh, I forgot, we made the required older guy bathroom stop as well. After a too brief time in the museum, which while small was interesting, the tour guy summoned us like grade school children to push on to the site. Herein lies one of my problems with organized tours ---Time constraints. When you go It alone, you do what you want,linger, push forward or just plain sit with your back to the temples and chill. However, the plus side is you get a lot of informative information, they do all the work of getting you there and you meet other people from all over the world and exchange travel information.

Lamanai is a much larger, excavated site than Altun Ha. It was home to 60,000 Mayans of which most were of poor 99%. Hey, somebody had to build the temples so the King, who supposedly had 31 wives, one from each Mayan clan and his religious phonies could rule the roost. The guide provide much useful knowledge in the everyday life of the Mayans. The Mayans work 360 days a year and were given 5 days off in July for their feast. How lucky these Mayans were to have zero unemployment and the good fortune of serving God and Country. We walked around an area that was an noblemen's typical house. A stone slab is the King's bed. The few tiny rooms or what is left of them extend into an open courtyard that we are told was the kitchen and eating area. We do the obligatory thing of helping others with their photos, as they do for us.

We reach the infamous ball court. Here we are told the Mayans played a game where you had to get the rubber ball into a basket. The winners were sacrifice because it was an honor to die for God, King and Country. We had heard the King gives this honor to some of his wives, What are the odds the King sacrificed the younger brides? Yea, I had the same feeling, what a racket. Anyway, back to the ball court. I asked the guide if they used severed heads to play the game. He, with disdainful pride looked and me and said "No, those were the Mexicans Mayans that used heads." I couldn't resist and said "yea, the Belize Mayans were the good Mayans, they just sacrificed."

We now reach a stone rock circle that is supposed to be a left over Mayan calendar. I could not tell a thing from it and while I took a photo and will not post it because it looks just like a round rock. I would not insult my readers! I only want the good phony photos in my blog. We continue to walk through the jungle and come to the major Mayan temple. A note about the misquitos, they are everywhere. Hey, you're in the jungle. I have these specialized gadget pants that are suppose to be in cent repellant. I can say that it might be a bunch of bullshit. I got home and my legs with long pants were bitten and arms as well.

The main temple is about 110 feet. The height of a ten story building. Bill was not in the mood to climb/walk to the temple top and since we have been doing everything together hung out with him and said, we'll get the next one. The truth is I have been to the top of the world trade center, Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, and Rockefeller Center. So going up the equivalent of a ten story building and looking down over tree tops is something I can take or leave. We waiting and chatted below with other tourists as those who climbed came back down. Bill was impressed as I was talking to this woman from Scotland and told her we were in Orkney. She got all excited and Bill regale her with out stones exploits in Scotland.

The ride back was quicker as we made no stops. Mr. Bailey was waiting for us to take us home. We were tired, we wanted to get home, have some drinks and maybe eat. A great day.

Closing around with my head in King's mouth. These sculptures were on either side of the main temple.

A couple of chappies sharing a laugh. Those teeth are amazing even though not my original look. I love playing the role of the good looking phony hehehe.